Verena Altenberger

Verena Altenberger is an Austrian actress born on November 11, 1987. She is best known for starring in the lead role of the 2017 film The Best of All Worlds (Die beste aller Welten).

Altenberger grew up in the Austrian state of Salzburg in Dorfgastein, Hallein, and Oberalm. She spent part of her youth at Schloss Winkl, a former residence of nobility, where her mother was the principal of the Winklhof agricultural school. At age 18, she moved to Vienna to study acting. After initially being rejected at the Max Reinhardt Seminar, she pursued and completed a bachelor's degree in Mass Media and Communication Science at the University of Vienna. In September 2011, she began studying drama at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna, graduating in June 2015.

During the 2010/2011 season, Altenberger joined the Junge Burg Ensemble at the Vienna Burgtheater, where her performances included the title role in Alice in Wonderland, Blanche Barrow in Bonny and Clyde, and Isolde Weißhand in Tricky Love – Tristan und Isolde. She returned to the Burgtheater in the 2013/2014 season as Lore in Puss in Boots, and in 2015 appeared as Rozí in Haben at the Vienna Volkstheater. In 2021 and 2022, she took on the role of Paramour (Buhlschaft) in Jedermann at the Salzburg Festival alongside Lars Eidinger.

In television, Altenberger portrayed Chantal in the Austrian series CopStories from 2013 to 2018. She also appeared as the assistant to the director of the Vienna State Opera in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and landed the title role of a Polish geriatric nurse in the 2016 German comedy series Magda macht das schon!.

Altenberger starred in the lead role of Adrian Goiginger's 2017 film The Best of All Worlds, portraying a mother battling heroin addiction alongside Jeremy Miliker. That year, she narrated Climb Every Mountain: Sound of Music Revisited and appeared in Shillings from Heaven. She followed this with roles in M – A City Hunts a Murderer, Ein Dorf wehrt sich – Das Geheimnis von Altaussee, and joined Polizeiruf 110 as Munich investigator Elisabeth "Bessie" Eyckhoff. Her screen work continued with Shades of Guilt, the documentary Virginia – The Unsolved Riddle of the Salzburg Mafia Bride, the thriller Hunt for the Bosses, and the comedy Schönes Schlamassel.

In 2021, Altenberger reunited with director Adrian Goiginger for Märzengrund, filmed the series Wild Republic in South Tyrol, shaved her head to play a cancer patient in Unter der Haut der Stadt, and played Marie in the tragicomedy Me, We. Her public appearances include guest spots on the radio show Frühstück bei mir and the late-night program Wir sind Kaiser. In November 2021, she assumed the presidency of the Austrian Film Academy alongside director and producer Arash T. Riahi.

Altenberger lives in Vienna. She speaks German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish, and Turkish.